As Vickie Wang, an emerging performer, takes her platform in New York, she's not just considering which jokes to deliver. Additionally, she carefully considers what subjects to steer clear of. “I refrain from openly attacking the government,” she stated. Or if she does, she makes certain it isn't captured for online platforms. “I would never publish openly content in which I directly criticize the government … I think it's a habit acquired back home.”
Wang, 39, resided in Shanghai for nearly ten years, departing in 2022. In 2025, she moved to America. When she got there, she dove into an intense period of “overindulging on democracy,” attending lectures, demonstrations, and exploring the city's library system.
However over the past year after Donald Trump was elected again, there has been a “palpable change” in the atmosphere, she says. “Back home, I understood where the line was, whereas in the US I'm standing on unstable ground.”
Wang’s fears mirror an emerging climate in the US which numerous individuals from China, or those who have lived in China, find eerily familiar. Opponents face exclusion. The leader demands absolute loyalty. Reporters face scrutiny. Institutions are attacked.
The president has not been shy regarding his respect for China's leader, China’s authoritarian figure. He's called Xi as a “great guy”. As they agreed a brief ceasefire in economic tensions recently, the camaraderie between the two leaders of countries with diametrically opposed political systems became clear. Following years of optimism in the US that improved relations with China could assist the rising power become more open, in the current administration, it seems that America is shifting in the Chinese direction, instead of the other way around.
“The United States is experiencing a period of societal upheaval,” stated a constitutional law expert, an academic at Peking University. “The president, Donald Trump, is attempting to mobilise the masses to marginalize or undermine established figures … similar to what happened in the country half a century ago.”
Ever since the administration initiated the so-called Department for Government Efficiency, or Doge, on federal institutions early on in office, many in China see US politics via the perspective of China's historical period. Whether it is the mobilisation of the youth to execute the leader’s will, or cleansing institutions of perceived enemies, the president from a Chinese viewpoint has brought disorder reminiscent of Mao to America, albeit absent the same levels of violence.
But since the upheaval of the initial period under Trump subsided, an unfamiliar, different kind of climate has emerged in the country, which variously also feels familiar to many Chinese individuals.
‘The Lighthouse Has Become Less Bright’
The most profound similarity between the US today and China is the crackdown on open expression.
A former police officer, turned Chinese Communist party dissenter, ended up in a controversy this year, similar to what he’d only previously experienced in China. Deng has lived in America since 2019, after escaping the country because of pressure from the authorities.
In September, after the death of Charlie Kirk, Deng tweeted that the individual was “despicable”. Similar to others across the US – who lost their jobs for making negative comments about Kirk – he encountered significant backlash. Relatives had personal info leaked and he faced allegations of being a Chinese spy seeking to create division.
“This incident was a real shock. I never imagined such a thing could happen in the United States – what typically happens in a repressive state,” he commented.
His pile on came from online peers, instead of the state, but such of social surveillance bears parallels with China.
“Regarding going after dissenters and monitoring open discourse about issues deemed controversial … It's appearing in the US,” said an academic, a scholar at a US university. “That’s something that you see in the East now as well,” she said, stating that there were now fears in America of pupils informing against teachers, a form of surveillance promoted by Chinese authorities.
The professor, the Peking University law professor, said that liberal Chinese intellectuals such as him used to look to America for political inspiration, since public debate on domestic politics in China is risky. However, “America isn't a god for Chinese liberals. America’s image has worsened generally.”
“We used to see America as the symbol of constitutional democracy, but after Trump took power, this lighthouse appears less luminous”.
Chinese liberals, who are often, behind closed doors, skeptical about China’s political system, now perceive it more acceptable than the US's, he stated. “It's somewhat difficult to acknowledge this … but post-COVID, the government seems to be doing correct policies in improving the environment and promoting EVs and tech investment,” Zhang said, while “Western nations, as represented by the United States, appear in decline.”
The government's acquisition of shares in American firms has prompted comparisons with China, where the distinction between state and business is often blurred.
Recently, the US government announced it would become a shareholder in a new company focused on rare earth processing, following similar stakes in additional firms deemed vital to national security. The deals have made some investors concerned that America is entering a new era of state intervention in private industry.
Yet, there remain major differences between Trump’s America and the East. In October, several news organisations including the Guardian refused to sign to a defense department rule that demanded they only report on government-authorised news. US courts have halted or overturned numerous Trump’s actions, something that would be unthinkable in the nation's CCP-controlled judiciary.
Isaac Stone Fish, the founder of Strategy Risks, specializing in China, said: “The United States could descend into the worst crisis of all time, far more severe than currently, and it would remain more free, open, and liberal than China under Xi.”
The professor notes that although numerous scholars in China were shocked to see American colleges capitulate to government demands concerning diversity and inclusion practices and open discourse on university grounds, in China, leading institutions are all state-owned inherently. University leaders, who are appointed by the state, “cannot refuse. They dare not to be disobedient.”
Still, Americans are starting to adopt measures previously confined to more authoritarian countries. One professor at an American college who was previously vocal on US-China issues refused to be interviewed for this piece. He stated: “Honestly, I fear of the censorship in the US: I genuinely feel less afraid criticizing China's leader these days than say anything bad
